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Windows 10 Update Removes Windows Media Player (betanews.com)
Recently made available Windows 10 update KB4046355 for the Fall Creators Update disables Windows Media Player from the operating system. BetaNews reports: While it could be argued that Windows Media Player is no longer an essential addition to Windows -- there are plenty of quality third-party alternatives, such as VLC Media Player, not to mention the Films & TV app in Windows 10 itself -- many users still rely on it. The feature's removal came to light when users installed KB4046355 on devices running Windows 10 version 1709 -- the Fall Creators Update. This update, referred to as FeatureOnDemandMediaPlayer, removes Windows Media Player from the OS, although it doesn't kill access to it entirely. If you want the media player back you can install it via the Add a Feature setting. Open Settings, go to Apps > Apps & Features, and click on Manage optional features.
...While it could be argued that Windows Media Player is no longer an essential addition to Windows...
It could also be argued that the Windows 10 data harvesting is not an essential addition to Windows. Yet there it remains....
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Makes one wonder what the real reason is for removing Media Player.
Explain to me WHY this is a useful program?
You mean Windows 10? The jury is still out on that one.
There is good money to be made helping the victims of the push-update. Depending on the mental state of the victim and the levels of their drug addiction, some back to Win7, some forward to Linux.
It's a shell linking audio/video codecs (which still exist) to a simple set of video controls, perhaps with some mostly useless cruft, but it did a decent job.
It definitely wasn't anywhere near the best player - but when you went to a random PC, you could be sure that most common videos would play.
Why would you remove that as a minimal component on PCs? Browsers are OK - but when you're going for a presentation on a random PC, there's all kinds of ways those can crap out in ways that a simple default video player would be fine.
Seems a very dumb thing to remove, if you want PCs to be useful general devices world-wide.
And note - probably less than 2% of your user base is going to go onto the 'Windows Store' to try and get ANYTHING to fix this shortcoming. Attempting to profit from your own manufactured problem is not going to pay off in this case, compared to what it's costing you in terms of basic capability.
Ryan Fenton
It's not. WMP has long out lived its usefulness. I honestly thought it was already gone. Imagine my surprise when it opened up the other day on some obscure video format that I had long forgotten about.
VLC does a whole lot better job.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
These feature removals mostly seem troublesome at a locked down PC environment at school or work where you can't install anything. So while not disastrous, it is certainly annoying when you can't do some trivial thing on a computer without admin rights on it.
I stuck with WMP (when using windows) because it plays music and rips to mp3. I don't need it to do more. The windows 10 replacement was a nightmare because it consumes the whole screen in some tablet-mode nonsense.
I could use any of many media players, but I don't really care. Being familiar with where the play button is and how to get to the playlists is handy.
It's not a function of age, it's a function of not giving a shit.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
How about some BSD?
Circumcision is child abuse.
There's nothing wrong with Windows 8, as long as you install ClassicShell and disable all the Metro crap.
Have you really had issues with systemd or even pulseaudio or network manager?
I installed debian on my samsung laptop and it worked without mesing with any files. I have never had it fail to boot. I have it on my raspberry pi as well running homeassistant also on debian.
I haven't had windows 10 fail to boot either, just saying I hear the systemd complaint allot but I really don't think it's an issue for most home users. Maybe it messes on the enterprise level, but your post is clearly talking about home users.
There's nothing wrong with Windows 8, as long as you turn it into Windows 7.
sig: sauer
Depends on your applications, obviously. It fucking sucks that if you want an alternative, you have to really work at it and there's always some use case that you just can't get around. That said, win8 is probably the least worst option if you're stuck with Windows.
If your objection to win8 is the UI stupidity, you can fix a large amount of the stupid with ClassicShell and some time tweaking settings. Not all of it, but it's a good start. As a bonus, with win8 it's not that rough fixing the spyware issues, doesn't even require third-party tools. Does require hitting up services and task scheduler and some time reading, and of course you have to re-check everything after every round with windows update, but it can be managed.
If you have some other issue with win8, discuss?
Win7 is getting a bit long in the tooth and hit and miss for being able to get support on some newer hardware. It it's not dead yet, but ...
Personally, it's been easier to just move over to Linux for general use. Slackware here, as it's where I started back in '93. No systemd, and not happening any time soon. Gnome got dropped a long time ago, though libraries are available as needed and last I looked there were two different third-party options for a complete gnome desktop install. Slackware has been infected by Pulse, but since Pulse is no longer Lennart's chew-toy, it's had a chance to get straightened out and by now is usually more help than hindrance. I will say fuck NetworkManager with a rusty spoon. It's not as much of a flaming pile of radioactive dogshit as it used to be, but it still finds new and interesting ways to fall down. Generally I don't install it on non-mobile systems, as it's slightly less of a pain than editing rc files when swapping AP's on wifi.
Hackintosh is a viable option if you do your research and get well-supported hardware up front. Pay less in cash, pay more in time, and really not appropriate at the office. Oy, wonderful trade-offs there.
Seriously though, if you're really stuck on Windows, spending the time to unfuck a default win8.1 install is probably a better option than just accepting 10. yes, it'll be some effort on maintenance and paranoia checking your settings (and services, and task scheduler) but weigh that against the forced random reboots and unexpected app breakage or forced uninstalls that STILL happen with 10.
When you live in a sick society, just about everything you do is wrong.
Unfortunately, that's not the choice. The choice is "an OS that runs the software I have to use" and "an OS that doesn't run the software I have to use."
I too prefer VLC, but at some point they *REMOVED* support for playing MIDI files. WMP still does this fine.
You missed the biggest contender for Linux desktop worthiness. Linux Mint. Which runs out of the box on just about any hardware I've thrown at it. It's reasonably friendly and reasonably easy to use. I highly recommend trying it. You can even get it on a Live bootable USB so you don't even need to put it on your hard drive to play with it.
...win 10 rapes everybody annually each and every year.
It's much much better, especially on Mac/Linux when it uses youtube-dl to support all these by default: https://rg3.github.io/youtube-.... Need a music player? Use Clementine.